I bit the inside of my lip to hide my spontaneous smile at his earnest question and walked him through the manipulation of his energy cloak. He was a quick learner, and any evidence of human activity was artfully erased. I placed a palm on his forearm and he exposed his own skin to mine for the ‘port to the road. From our higher vantage I could see our four imprints, James’ two much larger ovals and my petite ones. It was an easy exercise to flex our shields in unison and pat the earth in place with lazy swipes. James grinned with pride at the completion of our simple task. Sometimes it was nice to have a beginning and an end with immediate results. Life was unscripted, unpredictable and unfulfilling at times.
My pupils contracted as I gazed into the rippling distance to the tight, milling herd of people yards from us. Silver had already sent me a visual of where to materialize.
The faded blue sky didn’t change much on our arrival, but the sounds and ground did. I misjudged a smidge and ended up with a cactus spine in my butt. “Youch!”
I lurched forward in the sand then danced in a circle like a dog chasing its damn tail as startled laughter met my ears. When I held up the short sharp barb for inspection the wide grins and held bellies helped calm my fears about being a monster. People didn’t usually laugh at monsters.
Before my shield could creep around me completely I took a deep breath of the scalding, dry air and reveled in the heat on my neck. If only the wind could burn the death dealing of earlier from my brain.
James snagged the cactus spine in a nimble dash of his fingers. “Quit being dramatic. I’ll kiss it better later.”
Corinne stepped away from the huddled group of refugees. She narrowed her eyes against the bright sun and swung her arms as her boots kicked the sand. “Are you ready? Do you think we should try to take everyone at once or split the group?”
Malcolm yelled over everyone’s heads, “I vote all in one go. We need to be gone quick. The longer anyone stays here the more we risk detection.”
Ramon stood straight with one arm over Three and the little girl with the pink toenails on his hip. She had her body folded into his so snug she looked welded in place.
“No one in my clan should have to be transported the way I was if they choose not to be. They should have a say!”
Kal flung his duster back from his hips with flare, his false human features hiding the real velvet pools. “You do not have a choice. No harm will come to you by traveling this way. If you stay, you perish.” His fake brown eyes settled on the little girl.
The heavyset woman in the billowing broom skirt spoke up. “What is everyone talking about? If Ramon says no, I say no.” Her red cheeks made her look like a Native American Mrs. Klaus.
I held my hand skyward. “There is no negotiation. Wind Runner Clan put its life on the line to save you and as the leader of this group I say we’re all ‘porting out at once. That’s the end of this discussion. James, Corinne, Silver—let’s link up!” My index finger drew a square in the air.
James leaned sideways and murmured out of the side of his thinned lips, “Radial formation, us inside and the rest outside holding on?”
I drew even with Corinne just as I dipped my chin at James. She had her arms over her middle as if she were cold. “It’ll be fine, Corinne, we won’t incinerate anyone. Silver cleared where we’re landing with Maggie.”
Her lids lowered in a fan of mascara coated lashes. “Are you sure? We aren’t what I’d call stable. I saw the scorch marks we left in the carpet.”
A fly buzzed past my nose and I waved at it out of reflex. “Yes, but we all survived. Trust yourself more.”
Only a few of the Mesa Verde stepped back a pace as our threesome neared the center of those gathered. One thin doe-eyed boy reached out and touched my shielded fingertips in a hesitant grazing caress. I saw adoration and awe that I didn’t deserve.
The flies were thick and the buzzing was annoying. I could see a gray cloud of them hovering over a dune about ten yards away. The wind temporarily shifted direction and the gust brought a stench with it that couldn’t be described with just one word—sickly sweet with a cooked barbecue aroma mixed in.
Kal made tracks to the top of the berm. His long body turned into a black silhouette and he whistled for company. When Ramon’s curiosity got the better of him, Kal cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Leave the girl or do not come!”
A heavy weight dropped into the area of my womb and settled there in anticipation of something horrible to come. James, Silver, Mez, Corinne, Malcolm, Three and Ramon made a meandering line behind me as we traipsed in Kal’s eroding footsteps.
The stench was stronger and the buzzing became a loud never-ending hum of insect activity about two feet from Kal. For some strange reason my head became filled with the theme song from Lion King. I darted a glance at Silver and she smiled wide.
“Can you hear me, Sister?”
“I think so…”
She scrunched her pale eyebrows together. “How about now?”
White noise, like the static on a weak radio station signal, was all I heard. Disappointed, I shook my head and took the final step that placed me at the crest of the dune.
My eyes encountered a sea of death. Bodies lay stacked like kindling under the blaze of the sun as wakes of vultures tore at un-fresh flesh. There had to be hundreds of discarded dead left to bake in the sun. This wasn’t a mass grave so much as a dumping ground.
Kal wove his neck and clicked his teeth. “Who will protect you from yourselves, Cilda?”
James covered his nose with cupped palm and his words came muffled. “Now we really need to leave. Ramon, after we get back you should contact the Council and find out which clan isn’t answering. Could these be any of your people?”
Ramon wiped at his eyes with the back of one hand then realized the shield had prevented him from making contact and dropped his arm to his side. “The rest of my clan is accounted for. There was only one Mesa Verde death in the attack and it was Manuel’s wife. I will inform the Council of these events as soon as we return.”
That would explain Grand Canyon Eye’s collapse then. Maybe the Warps were stretched thin and that was why they hadn’t carted off or killed all of Mesa Verde. “James is right. We need to leave—now.”
Silver tucked her shoulder into Mez’s underarm. The hand I could see was fisted so tight the knuckles were marbled. Mez leaned his face down to peck her shielded crown of white hair.
I turned to descend and caught Three on his way up with the heavyset woman named Rose huffing and puffing behind him. My arms shot out in a horizontal equal sign. “Stop! We’re leaving.”
Three flared his nostrils and ground his teeth but obeyed. Rose on the other hand, kept trudging with the front of her skirt wadded into her waistband to keep it out of the way. Her thick burnished copper legs were coated in dust almost to the knee. I knew when she reached the top because her dramatic howl split the air.
Ramon barked at my back, “She told you to stop, Rose. Get up off the sand and pull yourself together!”
Rose sputtered, “H-how can you be so heartless? These are human beings!”
From our perch on relatively higher ground I saw a plume of road dust coming from the Warp compound. “We’ve got company! Get to the group now!”
And we ran.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Mazel Tov!
The first clue we’d arrived to safety was a burst of cool wind on my parched face. I opened my eyes to the evergreen pine needle canopy overhead. Crisp moist air met my nose with a hint of rain and camp fire in it. Sure enough, the sky that I could see through the overlapping branches was a deep, dark, puffed-up gray. When I looked at my feet, a blackened, smoldering aura of singed, shriveled grass framed them. Corinne broke the connection with a sigh of relief.
Rose was still sobbing with a high pitched howl thrown in for added dramatic effect and it made my ears want to leap off my head and scuttle deep in the Earth like a burrowing beetle. I inspected the group to make
sure we hadn’t fried anyone with the tesseract or accidently dropped someone in transit. It hadn’t happened yet, but there was always a first time for everything, especially with this many people. It appeared we’d all made it in one piece and no one was throwing up on their shoes like Ramon had on his rougher ride with me. The older man looked relieved as he patted himself all over. When the shield started to creep back over his legs Ramon bent in half and tried to brush it off to no avail.
I took pity and withdrew the energy back to myself. His dark brown, almost black eyes met mine and we had a split second connection that paused time before one of Rose’s tornado-siren wails broke the moment.
The little girl with the pink painted toenails began to cry and flail in Three’s embrace, making the muscles in his thin arms flex and strain. Ramon stomped on the lush grass, kicked a stray pine cone in his rush and grabbed Rose by her temples. “Be silent, woman! You’re scaring Wavalene to death and embarrassing yourself.”
The older woman dug her nails into the inside of his wrists, breaking the skin and making Ramon hiss in reaction. His grip only strengthened. “Behave or I will let the Wind Runners deal with you as they see fit.”
He glanced back at me and Rose’s plastic bead eyes settled on my blank expression. She must have seen something in it she didn’t like because she released her cruel clawed hold on the thin inner skin of Ramon’s forearms and closed her loud mouth. The silence was a blessing. I didn’t care if I had to be the bogeywoman to get it accomplished.
James broke the tension. “Ramon, you touch base with the Council and I’ll get your people settled. Manuel is still in the clinic with Maggie if you’d care to go there first?”
Ramon gave a curt head nod as he flexed his fingers and examined the blood-filled crescents before he aimed a disgusted glare at Rose. The woman had the good sense to look contrite whether she was or not.
Malcolm whistled with two fingers inserted between his full lips. “Listen up!” The big man drew the attention of thirty pairs of eyes without much effort. “We’ve got plenty of room for y’all to bunk with our clan. Follow James and he’ll get you square.”
I shot a sympathetic smile my boyfriend’s way and watched as he led his gaggle of refugees through the shadow dappled undergrowth and onto the sun-bleached concrete walk. Kevin brought up the rear with a parting wave to Corinne. Except for Rose and Wavalene, most of those who’d been taken were between the ages of ten and twenty. I wondered at the rhyme or reason.
Three lingered with a still sniffling Wavalene. His light brown eyes were puppy dog big and his free hand was rubbing light circles between tiny shoulder blades. “Thank you for helping us. No one else will say it because they’re afraid. They’re thinking it though.”
On instinct I peeled away my shield to touch the skin of Three’s hand and graze Wavalene’s back. A light electric pulse throbbed from the ends of my fingers. Guilt and fear made me withdraw my hand. Wavalene and Three shivered in reaction. My voice felt clogged with sticky tar but I managed to strangle out, “I appreciate that.”
Silver nudged me with a hip when they were caught up with the rest of Mesa Verde and too far away to hear. She kept her voice low but I could feel Corinne’s eyes on us.
I shrugged as I examined the toes of my boots. “What?” Her curiosity beat at me like fiery wings and I looked up.
Her mouth went slack and her snow drift eyebrows crept up, creating temporary wrinkles in her forehead. “Yeah, don’t play dumb with me. I saw what you did. Why?”
I pushed my shield outward to give myself room to stuff my hands in my pockets. “I’m not sure. It was a feeling. Shut up about it.”
Silver pulled my bubble around us and added thickness to it. Her arms slid around my biceps and held me so tight I thought she might be trying to meld us together. I struggled to pull my hands free of my front pockets and returned the hug with interest. Unbidden, flashes of death danced in my head and slashed my calm to ribbons. An image of the bodies piled in mounds of mummifying flesh rose up to be followed by my own mini-mound behind the M927 tire, then came the fountain of blood from the arteries of my first kill’s dismembered arms in the old compound’s cafeteria. Shame made my throat swell with screams I would never release.
Silver gasped. “Are you thinking about dead people?”
I plucked at the back of her t-shirt and she held me at arm’s length. “How are we doing this, Silver?”
Her honey eyes clouded, turning a burnt amber. “Not sure, Sister, not sure.”
Ramon, Mez, Corinne, Malcolm and Kal stopped at the edge of our invisible energy sphere. Kal shook his head but said nothing. His mouth had that carp pull that betrayed worry and disappointment.
I chuckled. “I feel like a pair of goldfish in a bowl being stared down by hungry house cats.”
Malcolm clapped his hands together and rested his nose on his knuckles. “I don’t claim to know the next step, but I think we should accelerate our plan to hit the Warps. Time doesn’t seem to be in our favor. It’s good Chavarria’s still here so we can get him up to speed quick. We need all the help we can get.”
I released my twin and crossed my arms over my chest, “Don’t you think that’s a decision James should be in on?”
Malcolm rubbed his bottom lip on a split knuckle. “We don’t have time for egos or rank either. One of us sees what needs doing, we do it. James would understand. He doesn’t need you to defend him, Cass.”
Ramon cleared his throat. “Our people have a saying, ‘Together we will.’”
I uncrossed my arms and gave Malcolm a double thumbs-up with an eye roll thrown in for good measure. He said nothing, but his near-black eyes held so much censure I had to fight against the shrinking sensation in my chest. Ramon looked down his nose and just when I might have burst into hot irrational rage my twin intervened.
Her mind-voice was a dim echo of what it had been. “You’re being childish, Cass. I hope you hear this and I don’t care if you get pissed at me for taking their side. Give me a sign or something?”
My eyes watered and burned with the relief of having Silver home, even part way. “Here’s your sign, Silver.”
She put a finger to her lips and smiled around it. Everyone else but Corinne seemed confused. Our blonde ice queen just harrumphed and snapped her fingers for us to get a move on.
Silver split our protective film down the middle like a replicated cell. “We can use one of the operating rooms, Maggie won’t mind. That way Ramon can be close to Manuel for now, until he’s more stable.”
If his wife had passed, given his advanced age, I didn’t know if he’d make it. Perhaps the shock would do him in, but I was willing to bet grief would play a huge part. Grand Canyon Eyes might choose to fade, regardless of how stubborn he’d seemed before. According to Maggie, losing one’s bonded life partner was a blow many Weavers chose not to rebound from.
Even with those cheerful thoughts my euphoria at being linked to my twin’s mind didn’t fade. If anything it increased exponentially until I thought sunshine and magical confetti would erupt from every pore.
Silver’s happiness hummed. “Dim the brights, Sister. We need to be serious.”
I shunted a unicorn blowing rainbow colored candy out its ass and her return laugh was joyous. Oh yes, we were back in form.
David opened the front door of the clinic and yelled across the lawn, “Maggie says to get your butts inside and stop loitering.”
We found Maggie in treatment room three with Manuel. Chavarria stood as a silent sentinel in a corner, wisely keeping out of her way. The soft white light on Manuel’s ashen cheeks cast an unearthly, peaceful dreaminess to features that I’d only seen scowl disapprovingly. I could almost see the younger man of the past and it sobered me.
Silver insinuated her thought in a slow, cool caress. “Asshat that he’s been, I feel sorry for him. What if you or I lost James or Mez after a lifetime together?”
There wasn’t anything I could say to that. I didn’t
fail to notice the segue to Maggie in Silver’s mind. Her concern was deep for our aunt; for that matter so was mine. My eyes changed direction and locked on Maggie’s frizzed out bun as she leaned on the side of the patient table and listened to Manuel’s heart with her shining stethoscope. Her lowered lashes were long against her freckled skin but they couldn’t conceal the dark circles masquerading as shadows in the light.
Ramon held out his palm. “May I?”
Maggie lifted the chest piece from over Manuel’s heart by the bell and tugged on the binaurals to remove the ear tips. She handed the mark of her trade to Ramon without words. A look passed between them that ended with the other physician bowing his head and placing a weathered hand where the stethoscope’s diaphragm had been just moments before.
My aunt wiggled her fingers at us and threw her head to the side to include Chavarria. “Let’s give them a moment or two, y’all.” She paused with an arm across her waist and an elbow braced against the back of her trapped hand. Her free fingers fluttered like a light crazed moth before they settled under her chin. “Ramon, if you need me, just call.”
He didn’t respond.
We shuffled down the short hall to the open spill-over room and Maggie kept going, past the bathrooms and into her office. We all followed like dutiful ants on a scent trail. My aunt’s new digs did indeed share a wall with the men’s and women’s toilets but they were far larger than what she’d had before. Her old couch had made it from the compound along with a few other items. New herb braids hung from plant hooks screwed into the ceiling—there were no rafters here. Pleasant scents wrapped around me—the crisp cleanliness of peppermint, the gentle hug of lavender and the licorice smell of anise.
Malcolm took up two thirds of the couch by himself and stretched out his long legs to cage Maggie’s feet. He knocked the back of her knees with the side of one ham-hand and caught her plump bottom on one of his muscular thighs.
She smacked at his arms as they enfolded her. “You really think this is the time and place, Malcolm?”
PHOENIX (The Weaver Series Book 4) Page 20